Volusia County Council will consider whether to continue Waverly Media contract this week

Published: Saturday, October 5, 2013 at 8:41 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, October 11, 2013 at 9:32 a.m.

Waverly Media, the bus bench advertising company whose owners face federal mortgage fraud charges, remains the focus of a state investigation regarding thousands of dollars of in-kind campaign contributions several Volusia County political candidates received in 2010 and 2012, an assistant state attorney has told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

One person who worked for the company has already been sentenced to probation in the case, but Assistant State Attorney James Disinger said more arrests are possible once the investigation concludes.

“There's still an active investigation with some of the people involved in this case,” Disinger said. “The investigation is in regards to Waverly Media.”

Waverly Media also is getting a close look from the Volusia County Council, which on Thursday is scheduled to consider whether to continue its bus bench contract with the firm.

The company owns bus benches that display advertising. There are about 700 benches in Volusia County's cities and unincorporated areas. Waverly has contracts with cities where its benches are placed, as well as with the county. The company pays each entity a percentage of the revenues it earns from advertising on the benches.

In 2009, Waverly's contract with the county — where the company had placed 115 benches at bus stops — was tenuous. County officials had informed Waverly that they would be seeking a new bus bench provider. Waverly was told it could put in a bid as well, said county spokesman Dave Byron.

But the process to request bid proposals was halted when the state began working on standardizing guidelines for accessibility at bus stops that would conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At that point, according to Byron, Waverly's contract with the county was allowed to continue.

The following year, in 2010, in-kind contributions connected to Waverly Media began to flow to candidates for County Council and other elected positions.

According to campaign contribution reports, Waverly contributed $40,200 in in-kind services to 12 candidates in 2010 and 2012. Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall said the contributions were suspect because the people whose names were linked to the donations were not authorized to make the in-kind contributions. McFall explained that one of the contributors of in-kind advertising, for example, listed her occupation as a housewife.

In-kind contributions are non-monetary donated products or services. In this case, the donations were mainly advertising on Waverly's bus benches, as well as signs for some candidates' vehicles and yard signs, the investigative documents show. A total of 13 people appear as in-kind contributors to the candidates, investigative documents and campaign reports show. Some of the contributors told state investigators that they had no idea who most of the candidates were or that their names had even been used.

Disinger said none of the candidates knew that the contributions were suspect.

The assistant state attorney would not get into specifics about the investigation. However, documents show it is focused on “allegations Waverly Media LLC and/or its owners, officers, and/or its stockholders violated campaign finance laws through multiple in-kind contributions made to several political candidates during the 2010 and 2012 elections, contrary to Florida State Statute 106.08.”

Former Waverly manager James Brown, a 58-year-old Ponce Inlet resident who is already serving probation in connection to this case, was the point man at Waverly who secured the names of contributors. In some cases, according to the investigation, Brown simply used the names of people he knew.

WAVERLY CONTRIBUTIONS

McFall, who has been involved with the case and initially reported the questionable contributions to the State Attorney's Office in July 2012, said one of the individuals being looked at by the state is “definitely Ramara Garrett,” a former real estate broker who owns Waverly Media with her live-in boyfriend, Jim Sotolongo.

Although neither Garrett's nor Sotolongo's names are now connected with the business in state records, investigators' interviews with a current employee and three former workers confirm the couple own the advertising business. A civil lawsuit Brown filed against Sotolongo recently also states that Sotolongo is an owner at Waverly.

Garrett, Sotolongo and two others are awaiting a federal trial in Orlando in December in a mortgage fraud case involving several high-end Volusia County properties. Sotolongo also has a federal conviction from the 1990s for possession of cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Andy Kelly, who lost his 2012 bid for supervisor of elections, $8,000.

County Councilman Josh Wagner, $7,000.

Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, $5,150.

County Councilwoman Joyce Cusack, $5,000.

Justin Kennedy, who lost his bid for County Council, $4,950.

Jeff Allebach, who lost his bid for County Council, $2,000.

James Hathaway, who lost his bid for County Council, $2,000.

Frank Bruno, who lost his bid for the Florida Senate, $1,500.

Missy Kelly, who lost her bid for County Council, $1,500.

George Trovato, who lost his bid for County Council, $1,000.

Dennis Mulder, who ran for, then withdrew his bid for the Florida House, $1,000.

Stony Sixma, who lost his bid for County Council, $500.

County Councilman Doug Daniels, $250.

Three candidates amended their campaign contribution reports to show that they returned a total of $5,500 worth of in-kind donations to their contributors. Those candidates included Wagner, who returned $2,000; Andy Kelly, $2,000; and Hathaway, $1,500.

The News-Journal contacted the candidates who received several in-kind contributions from Brown, Garrett, Sotolongo and others at Waverly Media, but only five candidates agreed to speak to the newspaper. One was Cusack, whose campaign received contributions in 2010 when she ran for County Council at-large and won. The other candidates who spoke about the investigation — Allebach, Hathaway, Missy Kelly, her husband, Andy Kelly, and Bruno — received contributions in 2012. Andy Kelly also received in-kind contributions from Waverly when he ran for re-election to the County Council in 2010.

Andy Kelly received the heftiest in-kind contributions from the Waverly group. He believes he got the donations because he ran for a county-wide seat in 2012 — supervisor of elections — rather than a district seat.

“I didn't know that I had gotten the most donations until I was told by the investigators,” Andy Kelly said.

He said he met Garrett and Sotolongo before 2012 at another political candidate's fundraiser. He declined to name the other politician and added that he was not a personal friend of Garrett or Sotolongo.

He said he and his wife were interviewed by state investigators separately.

Kennedy and Henry did not return phone messages. Wagner declined to speak about the contributions and did not answer questions that were emailed to him.

Allebach and Hathaway said they were interviewed by the State Attorney's Office concerning the campaign contributions investigation. The two men also said they had no knowledge about illegal campaign contributions or the allegations about Waverly Media.

Allebach received in-kind and monetary contributions from Waverly Media, Brown, and two other people who were employed or are still employed by Waverly Media, the documents state. The in-kind contributions to Hathaway came from Brown, Kim Was — who state records show is the manager at Waverly — and three other people who said they had no idea their names had been used as contributors, the documents show.

Cusack recently said she received an in-kind contribution from Waverly through her friendship with Garrett and Sotolongo. The couple allowed Cusack to set up her campaign headquarters at a used car lot on International Speedway Boulevard that was owned by Sotolongo and another man at the time, property records show. Cusack said she met Garrett and Sotolongo via mutual friends when she decided to run for the County Council in 2010.

“Ramara called me and said she had heard about me and had admired me from afar when I was in the (state) Legislature,” Cusack said. “They (Ramara and Jim) helped me. They let me use the site on International Speedway. I had no idea about the allegations (against them).”

While Cusack said she would talk with Garrett “once in a while,” she said the two did not have much contact after her election to the County Council.

“I was so surprised when all this happened,” Cusack said, referring to the mortgage fraud charges against Garrett and Sotolongo. “I would have never imagined that this would happen to them. They were very nice.”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect office Dennis Mulder was seeking before withdrawing from the campaign.

CANDIDATES QUESTIONED

Cusack said she has been interviewed by state investigators as well as an FBI agent concerning Garrett and Sotolongo and the campaign contributions case.

“There was someone from the FBI who questioned me earlier this year,” she said.

Bruno, who now works in real estate, was a county councilman on and off since the 1980s and Volusia's first county chair, serving two terms, from 2004 to 2012. He said he didn't recall much about the in-kind contribution he received but said it had something to do with an event in Holly Hill for his campaign for state senate in 2011. Bruno said he was not questioned by state investigators concerning the contribution he received from Waverly. He said Garrett would call him “from time to time” when he was county chair to discuss the bus benches.

Missy Kelly said she was interviewed by two state investigators concerning the in-kind contributions she received.

“We met with the State Attorney's Office and they asked us about the contributions,” she said earlier this week at her office in DeLand. “They also showed us pictures of Ramara, Jimmy (Sotolongo) and Jim Brown and asked us if we knew who these people were.”

During her campaign, Missy Kelly said Brown did provide her with a list of the people who were donating in-kind contributions to her race.

“I didn't know any of them except for Brown,” Missy Kelly said. Her husband said he also received a list of in-kind contributors from Brown.

'INFLUENCE IN GENERAL'

State investigators' interviews with current and former Waverly employees reveal that principals of the company were intent on endorsing candidates who would favor their business endeavors.

Former Waverly employee Laura Marie Davis told investigators that, “she believed they (owners of Waverly Media) wanted certain people in office for their influence for the Pier restaurant deal, the riverfront condo deal and other business in general.”

Wagner partnered with Garrett in 2010 in hopes of running the restaurant on the Daytona Beach Pier. But their efforts crumbled in 2011 when the group of investors failed to come up with financial background information Daytona Beach city officials requested. Wagner and Garrett also were partners in the now-defunct Floridian View magazine.

Garrett and Sotolongo owned the majority of units at the River Club Condominium in South Daytona at one time. The property was weighed down by numerous tax liens and the removal of those led to a federal corruption case and the convictions of a former South Daytona mayor and a former city magistrate for accepting bribes.

So far, the in-kind contributions investigation has resulted in one arrest and charges against Brown, who was arrested in April and charged with making illegal campaign contributions.

Brown — also a convicted killer — asked some Waverly employees, their friends and family members if their names could be used to appear as contributors for certain candidates, investigative documents state. The individuals were told that no money would come out of their pockets.

According to the investigative documents, the in-kind contributions were made directly by Waverly.

In August, Brown was charged with three counts of exceeding campaign contribution limits. The first two counts are felonies and the third count is a misdemeanor. He was adjudicated guilty on the misdemeanor and adjudication was withheld on the two felonies. He was placed on five years' probation.

“Brown said everyone at Waverly Media did it (contributed to candidates) to gain favor with politicians,” Disinger said in a telephone interview.

While candidates who were interviewed by The News-Journal said they had no inkling that anything illegal had occurred with the in-kind contributions, the current manager at Waverly told state investigators that one unidentified candidate was informed about the donations.

“The information of in-kind contributions was reported to a particular candidate,” the state investigator wrote under his interview with Was. “She (Was) did not specifically report anything to any candidate. It would have been someone from the office (Waverly Media) who would have made the report.”

Was also told investigators: “It was often stated in the office by Jim Sotolongo that we needed to help certain people.”

Aside from Was, investigators also questioned at least three former employees of the company.

Those questioned recounted conversations they overheard in the Waverly Media office regarding politicians and why the contributions should be made, the documents show.

MORTGAGE FRAUD CASE

Garrett, Sotolongo and two others also were the focus of a three-year federal mortgage fraud investigation that culminated in the arrest of the couple, as well as title agent Stephanie Musselwhite and mortgage broker Chris Mencis, earlier this year. All four defendants are scheduled for trial in federal court in Orlando in December. Waverly Media's offices were raided by FBI agents on Jan. 29 in connection with the mortgage fraud case.

Brown, who was in partnership with Sotolongo for ownership of Waverly Media, sued Sotolongo after he fired Brown in April. The dismissal came 11 days after Brown's arrest for the campaign contributions issue, records show.

In the complaint, Brown accuses Sotolongo of severing the business relationship and failing to pay commissions and fees. Brown also seeks the $250,000 investment he made for 25 percent of Waverly Media. Brown's lawsuit also names title agent Musselwhite, whose position with Waverly Media is unclear.

Neither Garrett nor Sotolongo could be reached for comment for this story. Brown's attorney Mike Lambert said his client will not be making any statements until his civil lawsuit against Waverly has been resolved.

On Thursday, the County Council will broach the future of bus benches in unincorporated Volusia. Among the options available to the council is one that ends the county's contract with Waverly.

County spokesman Byron said Waverly has paid the county $33,221 in advertising revenue for the three-and-a-half-year period of Oct. 1, 2009 to March 27, 2013. He said the company never gave the county an itemized accounting of its revenues. Byron also said that any free bus bench advertising that may have been given to a political candidate is likely revenue the county did not share in.

<p>Waverly Media, the bus bench advertising company whose owners face federal mortgage fraud charges, remains the focus of a state investigation regarding thousands of dollars of in-kind campaign contributions several Volusia County political candidates received in 2010 and 2012, an assistant state attorney has told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.</p><p>One person who worked for the company has already been sentenced to probation in the case, but Assistant State Attorney James Disinger said more arrests are possible once the investigation concludes.</p><p>“There's still an active investigation with some of the people involved in this case,” Disinger said. “The investigation is in regards to Waverly Media.”</p><p>Waverly Media also is getting a close look from the Volusia County Council, which on Thursday is scheduled to consider whether to continue its bus bench contract with the firm.</p><p>The company owns bus benches that display advertising. There are about 700 benches in Volusia County's cities and unincorporated areas. Waverly has contracts with cities where its benches are placed, as well as with the county. The company pays each entity a percentage of the revenues it earns from advertising on the benches. </p><p>In 2009, Waverly's contract with the county — where the company had placed 115 benches at bus stops — was tenuous. County officials had informed Waverly that they would be seeking a new bus bench provider. Waverly was told it could put in a bid as well, said county spokesman Dave Byron.</p><p>But the process to request bid proposals was halted when the state began working on standardizing guidelines for accessibility at bus stops that would conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act.</p><p>At that point, according to Byron, Waverly's contract with the county was allowed to continue.</p><p>The following year, in 2010, in-kind contributions connected to Waverly Media began to flow to candidates for County Council and other elected positions.</p><p>According to campaign contribution reports, Waverly contributed $40,200 in in-kind services to 12 candidates in 2010 and 2012. Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall said the contributions were suspect because the people whose names were linked to the donations were not authorized to make the in-kind contributions. McFall explained that one of the contributors of in-kind advertising, for example, listed her occupation as a housewife.</p><p>In-kind contributions are non-monetary donated products or services. In this case, the donations were mainly advertising on Waverly's bus benches, as well as signs for some candidates' vehicles and yard signs, the investigative documents show. A total of 13 people appear as in-kind contributors to the candidates, investigative documents and campaign reports show. Some of the contributors told state investigators that they had no idea who most of the candidates were or that their names had even been used.</p><p>Disinger said none of the candidates knew that the contributions were suspect.</p><p>The assistant state attorney would not get into specifics about the investigation. However, documents show it is focused on “allegations Waverly Media LLC and/or its owners, officers, and/or its stockholders violated campaign finance laws through multiple in-kind contributions made to several political candidates during the 2010 and 2012 elections, contrary to Florida State Statute 106.08.” </p><p>Former Waverly manager James Brown, a 58-year-old Ponce Inlet resident who is already serving probation in connection to this case, was the point man at Waverly who secured the names of contributors. In some cases, according to the investigation, Brown simply used the names of people he knew.</p><h3>WAVERLY CONTRIBUTIONS</h3>
<p>McFall, who has been involved with the case and initially reported the questionable contributions to the State Attorney's Office in July 2012, said one of the individuals being looked at by the state is “definitely Ramara Garrett,” a former real estate broker who owns Waverly Media with her live-in boyfriend, Jim Sotolongo.</p><p>Although neither Garrett's nor Sotolongo's names are now connected with the business in state records, investigators' interviews with a current employee and three former workers confirm the couple own the advertising business. A civil lawsuit Brown filed against Sotolongo recently also states that Sotolongo is an owner at Waverly.</p><p>Garrett, Sotolongo and two others are awaiting a federal trial in Orlando in December in a mortgage fraud case involving several high-end Volusia County properties. Sotolongo also has a federal conviction from the 1990s for possession of cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.</p><p>In the election-fraud case, Disinger is looking into <a href="http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130506/MULTIMEDIA/130509844/0/search">“multiple” in-kind contributions that people connected to Waverly Media made</a> to candidates running for the Volusia County Council and other seats during those election years. Those who received Waverly-related in-kind contributions are:</p><p>Andy Kelly, who lost his 2012 bid for supervisor of elections, $8,000.</p><p>County Councilman Josh Wagner, $7,000.</p><p>Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry, $5,150.</p><p>County Councilwoman Joyce Cusack, $5,000. </p><p>Justin Kennedy, who lost his bid for County Council, $4,950.</p><p>Jeff Allebach, who lost his bid for County Council, $2,000.</p><p>James Hathaway, who lost his bid for County Council, $2,000.</p><p>Frank Bruno, who lost his bid for the Florida Senate, $1,500.</p><p>Missy Kelly, who lost her bid for County Council, $1,500.</p><p>George Trovato, who lost his bid for County Council, $1,000.</p><p>Dennis Mulder, who ran for, then withdrew his bid for the Florida House, $1,000. </p><p>Stony Sixma, who lost his bid for County Council, $500.</p><p>County Councilman Doug Daniels, $250. </p><p>Three candidates amended their campaign contribution reports to show that they returned a total of $5,500 worth of in-kind donations to their contributors. Those candidates included Wagner, who returned $2,000; Andy Kelly, $2,000; and Hathaway, $1,500. </p><p>The News-Journal contacted the candidates who received several in-kind contributions from Brown, Garrett, Sotolongo and others at Waverly Media, but only five candidates agreed to speak to the newspaper. One was Cusack, whose campaign received contributions in 2010 when she ran for County Council at-large and won. The other candidates who spoke about the investigation — Allebach, Hathaway, Missy Kelly, her husband, Andy Kelly, and Bruno — received contributions in 2012. Andy Kelly also received in-kind contributions from Waverly when he ran for re-election to the County Council in 2010.</p><p>Andy Kelly received the heftiest in-kind contributions from the Waverly group. He believes he got the donations because he ran for a county-wide seat in 2012 — supervisor of elections — rather than a district seat.</p><p>“I didn't know that I had gotten the most donations until I was told by the investigators,” Andy Kelly said. </p><p>He said he met Garrett and Sotolongo before 2012 at another political candidate's fundraiser. He declined to name the other politician and added that he was not a personal friend of Garrett or Sotolongo.</p><p>He said he and his wife were interviewed by state investigators separately. </p><p>Kennedy and Henry did not return phone messages. Wagner declined to speak about the contributions and did not answer questions that were emailed to him. </p><p>Allebach and Hathaway said they were interviewed by the State Attorney's Office concerning the campaign contributions investigation. The two men also said they had no knowledge about illegal campaign contributions or the allegations about Waverly Media.</p><p>Allebach received in-kind and monetary contributions from Waverly Media, Brown, and two other people who were employed or are still employed by Waverly Media, the documents state. The in-kind contributions to Hathaway came from Brown, Kim Was — who state records show is the manager at Waverly — and three other people who said they had no idea their names had been used as contributors, the documents show.</p><p>Cusack recently said she received an in-kind contribution from Waverly through her friendship with Garrett and Sotolongo. The couple allowed Cusack to set up her campaign headquarters at a used car lot on International Speedway Boulevard that was owned by Sotolongo and another man at the time, property records show. Cusack said she met Garrett and Sotolongo via mutual friends when she decided to run for the County Council in 2010.</p><p>“Ramara called me and said she had heard about me and had admired me from afar when I was in the (state) Legislature,” Cusack said. “They (Ramara and Jim) helped me. They let me use the site on International Speedway. I had no idea about the allegations (against them).” </p><p>While Cusack said she would talk with Garrett “once in a while,” she said the two did not have much contact after her election to the County Council.</p><p>“I was so surprised when all this happened,” Cusack said, referring to the mortgage fraud charges against Garrett and Sotolongo. “I would have never imagined that this would happen to them. They were very nice.”</p><p>Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect office Dennis Mulder was seeking before withdrawing from the campaign.</p><h3>CANDIDATES QUESTIONED</h3>
<p>Cusack said she has been interviewed by state investigators as well as an FBI agent concerning Garrett and Sotolongo and the campaign contributions case.</p><p>“There was someone from the FBI who questioned me earlier this year,” she said. </p><p>Bruno, who now works in real estate, was a county councilman on and off since the 1980s and Volusia's first county chair, serving two terms, from 2004 to 2012. He said he didn't recall much about the in-kind contribution he received but said it had something to do with an event in Holly Hill for his campaign for state senate in 2011. Bruno said he was not questioned by state investigators concerning the contribution he received from Waverly. He said Garrett would call him “from time to time” when he was county chair to discuss the bus benches. </p><p>Missy Kelly said she was interviewed by two state investigators concerning the in-kind contributions she received.</p><p>“We met with the State Attorney's Office and they asked us about the contributions,” she said earlier this week at her office in DeLand. “They also showed us pictures of Ramara, Jimmy (Sotolongo) and Jim Brown and asked us if we knew who these people were.”</p><p>During her campaign, Missy Kelly said Brown did provide her with a list of the people who were donating in-kind contributions to her race. </p><p>“I didn't know any of them except for Brown,” Missy Kelly said. Her husband said he also received a list of in-kind contributors from Brown.</p><h3>'INFLUENCE IN GENERAL'</h3>
<p>State investigators' interviews with current and former Waverly employees reveal that principals of the company were intent on endorsing candidates who would favor their business endeavors.</p><p>Former Waverly employee Laura Marie Davis told investigators that, “she believed they (owners of Waverly Media) wanted certain people in office for their influence for the Pier restaurant deal, the riverfront condo deal and other business in general.”</p><p>Wagner partnered with Garrett in 2010 in hopes of running the restaurant on the Daytona Beach Pier. But their efforts crumbled in 2011 when the group of investors failed to come up with financial background information Daytona Beach city officials requested. Wagner and Garrett also were partners in the now-defunct Floridian View magazine. </p><p>Garrett and Sotolongo owned the majority of units at the River Club Condominium in South Daytona at one time. The property was weighed down by numerous tax liens and the removal of those led to a federal corruption case and the convictions of a former South Daytona mayor and a former city magistrate for accepting bribes.</p><p>So far, the in-kind contributions investigation has resulted in one arrest and charges against Brown, who was arrested in April and charged with making illegal campaign contributions. </p><p>Brown — also a convicted killer — asked some Waverly employees, their friends and family members if their names could be used to appear as contributors for certain candidates, investigative documents state. The individuals were told that no money would come out of their pockets. </p><p>According to the investigative documents, the in-kind contributions were made directly by Waverly.</p><p>In August, Brown was charged with three counts of exceeding campaign contribution limits. The first two counts are felonies and the third count is a misdemeanor. He was adjudicated guilty on the misdemeanor and adjudication was withheld on the two felonies. He was placed on five years' probation.</p><p>“Brown said everyone at Waverly Media did it (contributed to candidates) to gain favor with politicians,” Disinger said in a telephone interview.</p><p>While candidates who were interviewed by The News-Journal said they had no inkling that anything illegal had occurred with the in-kind contributions, the current manager at Waverly told state investigators that one unidentified candidate was informed about the donations.</p><p>“The information of in-kind contributions was reported to a particular candidate,” the state investigator wrote under his interview with Was. “She (Was) did not specifically report anything to any candidate. It would have been someone from the office (Waverly Media) who would have made the report.”</p><p>Was also told investigators: “It was often stated in the office by Jim Sotolongo that we needed to help certain people.”</p><p>Aside from Was, investigators also questioned at least three former employees of the company.</p><p>Those questioned recounted conversations they overheard in the Waverly Media office regarding politicians and why the contributions should be made, the documents show.</p><h3>MORTGAGE FRAUD CASE</h3>
<p>Garrett, Sotolongo and two others also were the focus of a three-year federal mortgage fraud investigation that culminated in the arrest of the couple, as well as title agent Stephanie Musselwhite and mortgage broker Chris Mencis, earlier this year. All four defendants are scheduled for trial in federal court in Orlando in December. Waverly Media's offices were raided by FBI agents on Jan. 29 in connection with the mortgage fraud case.</p><p>Brown, who was in partnership with Sotolongo for ownership of Waverly Media, sued Sotolongo after he fired Brown in April. The dismissal came 11 days after Brown's arrest for the campaign contributions issue, records show.</p><p>In the complaint, Brown accuses Sotolongo of severing the business relationship and failing to pay commissions and fees. Brown also seeks the $250,000 investment he made for 25 percent of Waverly Media. Brown's lawsuit also names title agent Musselwhite, whose position with Waverly Media is unclear.</p><p>Neither Garrett nor Sotolongo could be reached for comment for this story. Brown's attorney Mike Lambert said his client will not be making any statements until his civil lawsuit against Waverly has been resolved.</p><p>On Thursday, the County Council will broach the future of bus benches in unincorporated Volusia. Among the options available to the council is one that ends the county's contract with Waverly.</p><p>County spokesman Byron said Waverly has paid the county $33,221 in advertising revenue for the three-and-a-half-year period of Oct. 1, 2009 to March 27, 2013. He said the company never gave the county an itemized accounting of its revenues. Byron also said that any free bus bench advertising that may have been given to a political candidate is likely revenue the county did not share in. </p><p>But the county will never know.</p><p>“We didn't know if that was inventory (bus benches) that they couldn't sell,” Byron said. “They didn't tell us.”</p><p><em>News-Journal reporter Dinah Voyles Pulver contributed to this report.</em></p><p><i>Editor's note: The original version of this story did not specify that the local campaign contributions came from people connected to Waverly Media.</i></p><br><br>